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Women Who Inspire Women Series: Zahra Paracha Guitarist/Singer-Songwriter

By on April 8, 2020

Women Who Inspire Women Series

Zahra Paracha | Guitarist/Multi-Instrumentalist/Audio Engineer
Pakistan
https://www.instagram.com/zahrap_411/

So badass…just flipping through our IG account https://www.instagram.com/uniteasia/ these past few days to see such great messages and reactions to this new series, and we came across a hugely talented guitarist from Pakistan. A couple DM’s later and we have a whole write up on her…good thing we hit her up because it turns out she’s involved in a LOT of stuff.

Zahra Paracha is a Pakistani musician who is also the founder and festival director of Lahore Music Meet. She is the lead woman on all things technical at the festival pertaining to sound; engineering, live mix, and recording. Zahra is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, she performs with and has produced for the bands Sikandar ka Mandar, Biryani Brothers, and Dolce and Ghabraana, she plays the guitar, keys, mandolin, and drums.

Recently, she has become the tech engineer for Pakistani progressive metal band Takatak.

But it really was her guitar skills that got us…just check some of the videos below…

 

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Check out her top 5 below…

Noor Jehan

When I first got into singing and understanding classical music, I realized most of what has been documented about Noor Jehan has been after she got famous. What really inspired me though, was her struggle to actually get to that point. Perfecting your art in a society that deems it inappropriate is a difficult journey but she never gave up.

Abida Parveen

Abida Parveen not only excelled at her art, but she did so in a heavily male-dominated genre that is Qawwali. Her incredible vocal skills and perserverance have always served as a source of inspiration for me.

Haniya Aslam
Photo Credit: Kunal Kakodkar

As a kid, I grew up watching videos of Zeb and Haniya, one of the most popular bands in Pakistan from the 2000s. She was the first instance I had seen of a female musician in mainstream Pakistani music. And to top it all off, she is an incredible audio engineer and producer.

Mohini Dey

Mohini Dey is the best discovery I have made in recent times. Her technique and skills made me rethink everything I know about the bass guitar.

Brittany Howard
Photo Credit: John Salangsang

When my friend first made me listen to the Alabama Shakes, I started researching everything I could about the woman behind that insane voice and amazing guitar skills. Her soulful musicianship is something I aspire to develop in my own music.

Check out the previous articles on inspiring women in the series Women Who Inspire Women below (Click on the images to get to the articles):

Inspired by Revolver Mag’s own version, we wanted to showcase the amazing talent of female musicians involved in Asian hardcore, punk and metal scenes throughout this beautiful continent of ours. Get to know your scene, your community, the people that are making punk/hardcore/metal open to all people.  

UniteAsia.org is an underground Asian music news website created for the sole purpose of supporting our own world. We support all bands and genres HOWEVER we do not support nor have any sympathy for homophobic, racist, sexist rhetoric in lyrical content or band material. UNITE ASIA!
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